1 86 Cami>hell and Mattinglry, Rookery of Slunn-Pefrels. [i^i^Apni 



Storm-Petrel {Pclagodronia iiiaritui) comes to breed. Through 

 the kindness of Mr. S. P. Townsend, A.O.U., and in company 

 with him and two friends, I was enabled to visit this rookery 

 during the last week of the old year. 



We took a walk round the island on the evening of our 

 arrival ; for, after a long and boisterous trip from the Melbourne 

 side, our yacht gained its shelter only an hour or two before 

 sunset. As we passed along the strand a Ternlet {^Sterna nereis), 

 one of the daintiest of sea birds, with silver livery and black cap, 

 rose from the shingle, but its nest, or at least its dappled-brown 

 eggs, for it makes no nest, could not be discovered, so well were 

 they identified with their surroundings. Its complaining cries 

 attracted its mate, and the pair circled about as daintily as the 

 Swallows, from which this family of birds takes its popular name 

 of Sea-Swallows. Stranger bird noises were heard ahead of us, 

 sonorous croaks and piping trills. The Ternlets by their cries 

 had alarmed some wading birds, which could be seen standing 

 about, singly or in groups according to species, silhouetted 

 against the setting sun. The guttural noise of the Black Swan 

 was identified, and three birds, about the size of Plover, as they 

 wheeled to our rear, showed themselves, by their white-barred 

 wings, to be Turnstones. Passing round to the south of the 

 island we had to cross the neck of a marsh or lagoon. The 

 water was running out, but at high tide it is evidently covered 

 by a large sheet a few inches in depth. In the mud and ooze of 

 its surface the wading birds find abundant food. What a collec- 

 tion was there ! Such a place, where land and sea meet, is the 

 rendezvous of birds of many climes. The great order of Waders 

 is always well represented. Before us were flocks of long-legged 

 and long-winged God wits from Kamtchatka, a few Whimbrel, 

 and a solitary Sea Curlew, which, with its curved 8-inch bill, 

 was probing for crabs and other tit-bits. They nest, we are told 

 by Seebohm, within the Arctic Circle, and when their young 

 are full grown, by about August, when the long northern winter 

 is coming on, they all leave on a southern tour, the majority 

 arriving here in the month of September. Their life is a 

 perpetual summer, for they leave again before our winter returns, 

 and reach their northern haunts in time to revel in the Arctic 

 spring, with its abundant food supply of berries, insects, and 

 molluscs. What a journey for such quaint birds — 20,000 miles 

 every year. But the wonder of it is only intensified on seeing 

 flocks of Stints of three kinds (Sharp-tailed, Curlew, and Little), 

 which, though not much larger thaw Sparrows, have also come 

 from the Arctic tundras. Size is no bar, apparently. The 

 provision for it all is found in the long-pointed wings, the long 

 and abundant secondary feathers, giving an increased wing 

 surface, and the broad chest, where the pectoral muscles can be 

 well fixed for extended flight. Theirs is a long day and a long 



